Painted or coated metal parts are known to have the potential to experience a certain amount of delamination during use, especially along part edges. Such delamination (e.g., peeling, chipping, etc.) may occur unreasonably prematurely in the lifecycle of a given painted part due to presence of oxides on the base metal (e.g., due to laser cutting of a given metal part), surface roughness, insufficient cleaning of a part prior to painting, etc. Too much delamination occurring in too short of a time frame (e.g., within a warranty time frame) when placed into use by a customer may lead to a warranty claim, and the necessary repainting or replacement, in turn, would correspond to lost profits.
Various mechanical tests have been developed that help test the adhesive limits of paint on metallic parts. For example, ISO adhesive strength tests which involve mechanical stress application on the coating include pull-off tests, twist-off tests and peel-off tests. ISO tests which involve deformation of test specimens include bend tests with variously shaped mandrels, three point bend tests, t-bend tests, and cupping tests.